I slumped against the desk, staring at the shop’s interface with absolute disbelief.
"That’s just cosmic blue-balling at this point," I said, pointing a finger at the interface, "I can’t get bloodlines. And I can’t even buy time magic with a literal blank-check token."
[I need another cola to soothe my wounded soul.]
So I bought the third can, popped the tab, and took a long, carbonated pull.
The sugar hit helped, but as I let out a sigh, my mind drifted right back to the clearing.
My teeth gritted by themselves, as the phantom sensation of being ripped apart, my bones shattering and knitting back together in a perpetual loop of agony, being beaten within an inch of my life by Arlath, that haze of constant concussions, and the-
I shook my head hard, physically dislodging the thought, and forced myself to focus on the cold, hard why of it all.
The only reason the fight escalated into what it did was that I got caught off guard. I hadn’t been running my precognition when that mage launched the opening ambush.
And the rest of the beatdown happened because I couldn’t buy myself the four or five seconds it would have taken to unsling my shotgun, charge it up, and shoot a hole in their chests.
And if I’d had my Cloak of Flight, the fight would have been over in seconds. I would have just slipped high into the air and carpet-bombed the entire clearing with fragmentation pebbles.
Either way, the core issue was obvious. I needed time.
"Heh." A dry, humorless scoff escaped my lips. "The guy with the Time affinity damn near died because he couldn’t get five seconds of time to charge his shotgun. If anyone else heard that, they’d die laughing."
I stared at the blank search bar on the Epic Magic Token.
[Should I just buy some sort of flight magic?]
It wasn’t a terrible idea. Being able to fly was the only reason Nom-Nom, Peko, and I managed to escape the Pantheon, cross the Jubokko forest, and reach Shinkotsu in one piece.
But it would eventually become entirely redundant. The General and his R&D peeps were going to return my cloak once they finished poking it.
So, dropping an Epic Token on a spell that did the exact same thing as a piece of gear I already owned is not exactly scalable.
Besides, I had played enough games to know how rare these Epic tokens really were. The only reason I had even gotten this second one was through achievements. And any gamer worth his salt knows that systems always hands out the cool stuff initially to get you hooked, only to lock it all behind paywalls or massive grinds later.
I knew I was going to run out of these easy achievements very soon.
I could only do so many meaningful things for the first time, after all. And once that honeymoon phase was over, these Epic-grade tokens were truly going start feeling "Epic" in their rarity.
So, I had to make the most of it and be smart about it.
[So, no flight. I should pick something for crowd control. Something that will scale with me for a good while.] I leaned forward, tapping a finger against the desk.
[Something that could dictate the pace of the battlefield. Something that will buy me the precious few seconds I need to charge up the Boomstick.]
And among all my affinities, the best for that use case would be Ice and Nature.
[I already have Snowball for Ice,] I figured.
[But that’s basically a squishy, projectile-type spell. Good enough for basic mobs and crowd work, sure, but practically useless against someone like Arlath. Maybe I should look into Nature... spread out the options.]
After all, other than Manifestation, I had zero actual spells for my Nature and Metal affinities.
I technically had Temporal Step too, but that short-range teleport costs 60 MP to use, and my current cap was a 55. A minor mathematical hurdle I planned to rectify by the end of tomorrow.
Besides, Temporal Step was Time magic, which tears a visible ripple across time. Not to mention, I’d be flashing the literal calling card of the ’Destined Hero’ if I ever used it in front of people.
So, all things considered, Nature seemed like the smartest course of action.
"System," I called out to the empty room. "Filter for Nature spells. I want something that sprouts roots or vines to lock down my enemies, basically. And something that scales with my MP capacity."
-Ding!
Filtering complete. Based on Host’s parameters, the following Epic-grade magic has been isolated.
Dominium Radicis (Epic)
Description: Induces spontaneous biological root growth from any natural ground surface within the Host’s Domain.
These are not temporary mana constructs, but permanent, living botanical organisms seeded with the Host’s own DNA and resonating perfectly with their unique mana frequency.
Capable of rapid terrain alteration, high-tensile restraint, impalement, and complex multi-appendage manipulation.
Roots can also synthesize and inject a scalable, Host-specific neurotoxin via thorn extrusion.
Note* Cognitive strain scales with the number of simultaneous manipulations.
Roots persist independently of continued mana supply once formed.
Host is biologically immune to self-contamination from synthesized neurotixins.
MP Cost: Variable (Scales with size, density, neurotoxin’s lethality, and intent)
Price: 195,000 Credits / Epic Grade Magic Token
I stared at the floating text, my brain completely stalling out on a few very specific details.
[Seeded with my own DNA? Neurotoxins? And what the hell is a domain?]
I leaned forward, squinting and re-reading through it all. This wasn’t just summoning generic magic vines.
But past the sheer biological weirdness of it, the tactical implications were insane. The fact that they weren’t temporary mana constructs meant I wasn’t just temporarily trapping people. I could build barricades that wouldn’t just vanish into thin air the second I stopped feeding them mana.
The manipulation rule was perfectly straightforward too. [The more roots I control, the cognition it would take...]
It wasn’t a lazy, fire-and-forget spell. I’d have to actively micro-manage the roots like extra limbs to buy myself the time I needed.
And then there was the poison.
"Host-specific neurotoxins," I muttered, a slightly unhinged grin spreading across my face. "Well. That’s just delightfully war-crimey."
It was weird, slightly disturbing, and absolutely perfect.
"Sold," I said, leaning back in my chair. " Even without the toxins, I can go full tentacle po- anyway... System, cash in the token I ’need’ this!"